Serves Me Wright (Wright #9) - K.A. Linde Page 0,16
nothing wrong with Bertha.”
“Of course not. She’s perfectly wonderful.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t condescend to me, Wright.”
He put his hand to his heart. “Never.”
I rolled my eyes and then hopped out of the car. “Don’t forget to lock the door.”
He pushed the lock down. “No problem.”
His car beep-beeped next to me, and I jumped. I hadn’t expected it. I covered my embarrassed flush by popping Bertha’s trunk open again. I removed my duffel, and Julian extracted his sleek rolling suitcase.
“May I?” he asked, reaching for my duffel.
I let him have it, and he opened the Jag’s trunk.
“Is it even going to fit?” I asked, staring dubiously at the tiny trunk space.
He smirked. “That’s what she said.”
I covered my face. “Oh my God, you did not just say that.”
“You set me up,” he countered, sliding the suitcase and my duffel into the trunk.
“Well, now, I’m mortified. I didn’t mean…”
He laughed and opened the passenger door. “Just get in the car, Jen.”
“Are you sure you still want to go with me this weekend?” I asked when I stood before him.
“I’m sure.”
“It might be…awkward.”
Julian leaned forward against the door and smiled a smile that nearly knocked me off my feet. “I think it’s going to be fun.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
It was now or never. Once we were on the road, I was committed. I’d agonized over whether or not to go through with this enough the last week. I hadn’t even told my parents about bringing a boyfriend, just in case. But now, we were here, and he was smiling at me, and fuck it, I wanted him with me.
I dropped into the passenger seat. “So, what have you named her?”
“Who?”
“The car.”
He laughed. “She doesn’t have a name.”
He jogged around and got into the driver’s seat. The engine purred when he barely touched it. As if it really were a jaguar responding to his touch.
“She’s not real until you name her.”
“You name her,” he said automatically.
I shrugged. “Okay. You might regret that. I did name my car Bertha.”
“I’m already regretting the decision.”
“Cornelia,” I told him.
His eyes bulged as he veered us away from my house. “How does my new Jaguar look like a Cornelia?”
“It was that or Millicent.”
“Hey, I like Millicent. We can call her Milli.”
I snort-laughed and covered my face. “Milli!”
“All right, Milli. I’ll let you take it from here.”
He gunned it, and then we were out of the city and into the countryside beyond.
As we pulled into Austin city limits, Julian forced us to stop at a local coffee shop, so he could survive the impending traffic. He was more used to it than me, having grown up in Vancouver, but it had been almost four years for him. Both of us were irritable as we merged into the mess.
“I really don’t miss this,” he said with a yawn. He took a sip of his coffee. “Still not as bad as Vancouver, but fuck.”
“Yeah. I’m kind of glad that you’re driving now. I’d be a wreck.”
He shot me a grin. “See, we took Milli for a reason.”
After an hour of bad traffic conditions and a few close calls, we made it through the city and to the Airbnb that Chester had reserved for us near the UT campus. It didn’t look like much, but that wasn’t surprising. My parents wouldn’t have wanted to spend much money on…anything.
Julian parked Milli in the driveway. A brand-new Jag had never looked more out of place. But he didn’t say anything, just went to grab our luggage.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded. “I think so.”
I wasn’t sure though. It hadn’t occurred to me until now that we’d really be lying to everyone. I was a terrible liar. Even if it was a small deception that would make it easier to endure this weekend, I was starting to feel weird about it.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“It’s just…I don’t know how I feel about lying to my parents. Now that I’m here.”
“You never lied to them when you were growing up?”
I shrugged. “Not really. They always found out.”
He dropped my bag and reached for my hand, pulling me a little closer. My eyes widened. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. We can tell them the truth—that I’m your friend and you didn’t want to drive alone. That would be fine, too, Jen.”
My pulse jumped at how sincere he was—and how much I wanted him to lean down and kiss me. “No, it’ll be fine, right? We don’t have to go into details. Just that it’s